At the age of 16, in a nationwide selection for royal consorts, Cixi was chosen as one of the emperor's numerous concubines. When he died in 1861, their five-year-old son succeeded to the throne. Cixi at once launched a palace coup against the regents appointed by her husband and made herself the real ruler of China - behind the throne, literally, with a silk screen separating her from her officials who were all male.

People who bought this also bought...

Mao: The Unknown Story

Based on a decade of research and on interviews with many of Mao's close circle in China who have never talked before, and with virtually everyone outside China who had significant dealings with him, this is the most authoritative biography of Mao ever written.

Deng Xiaoping: A Revolutionary Life

Deng Xiaoping joined the Chinese Communist movement as a youth and rose in its ranks to become an important lieutenant of Mao's from the 1930s onward. Two years after Mao's death in 1976, Deng became the de facto leader of the Chinese Communist Party and the prime architect of China's post-Mao reforms. Abandoning the Maoist socioeconomic policies he had long fervently supported, he set in motion changes that would dramatically transform China's economy, society, and position in the world. Three decades later we are living with the results.

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China

Few books have had such an impact as Wild Swans: a popular best seller which has sold more than 13 million copies and a critically acclaimed history of China; a tragic tale of nightmarish cruelty and an uplifting story of bravery and survival.

The Last Manchu: The Autobiography of Henry Pu Yi, Last Emperor of China

In 1908, at the age of two, Henry Pu Yi ascended to become the last emperor of the centuries-old Manchu dynasty. After revolutionaries forced Pu Yi to abdicate in 1911, the young emperor lived for 13 years in Peking’s Forbidden City, but with none of the power his birth afforded him. The remainder of Pu Yi’s life was lived out in a topsy-turvy fashion: fleeing from a Chinese warlord, becoming head of a Japanese puppet state, being confined to a Russian prison in Siberia, and enduring taxing labor.

Wild Swans

Few books have had such an impact as Wild Swans: a popular best seller and a critically acclaimed history of China that opened up the country to the world. Through the story of three generations of women in her own family - the grandmother given to the warlord as a concubine, the Communist mother, and the daughter herself - Jung Chang reveals the epic history of China's twentieth century. Breathtaking in its scope, unforgettable in its descriptions, this is a masterpiece that is extraordinary in every way.

The Porcelain Thief: Searching the Middle Kingdom for Buried China

In 1938, when the Japanese arrived in Huan Hsu's great-great-grandfather Liu's Yangtze River hometown of Xingang, Liu was forced to bury his valuables, including a vast collection of prized antique porcelain, and undertake a decades-long trek that would splinter the family over thousands of miles. Many years and upheavals later, Hsu, raised in Salt Lake City and armed only with curiosity, moves to China to work in his uncle's semiconductor chip business.

Victoria: A Life

The longest reigning British monarch and female sovereign in history, Queen Victoria was a figure of profound paradox who has mystified historians for over a century. Now in this magisterial biography, A.N. Wilson rebukes the conventional wisdom about her life - that she was merely a "funny little woman in a bonnet" who did next to nothing - to show she was in fact intensely involved in state affairs despite a public façade of inaction.

Forgotten Ally: China's World War II, 1937 - 1945

For decades, a major piece of World War II history has gone virtually unwritten. The war began in China two full years before Hitler invaded Poland, and China eventually became the fourth great ally, partner to the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain. Yet its drama of invasion, resistance, slaughter, and political intrigue remains little known in the West.

The Red Flag: A History of Communism

In The Red Flag, Oxford professor David Priestland tells the epic story of a movement that has taken root in dozens of countries across 200 years, from its birth after the French Revolution to its ideological maturity in 19th-century Germany to its rise to dominance (and subsequent fall) in the 20th century.

The Rival Queens: Catherine de' Medici, Her Daughter Marguerite de Valois, and the Betrayal That Ignited a Kingdom

Catherine de' Medici was a ruthless pragmatist and powerbroker who dominated the throne for 30 years. Her youngest daughter, Marguerite, the glamorous "Queen Margot," was a passionate free spirit, the only adversary whom her mother could neither intimidate nor control.

In Manchuria: A Village Called Wasteland and the Transformation of Rural China

For three years Meyer rented a home in the rice-farming community of Wasteland, hometown of his wife's family, and their personal saga mirrors the tremendous change most of rural China is undergoing in the form of a privately held rice company that has built new roads, introduced organic farming, and constructed high-rise apartments into which farmers can move in exchange for their land rights.

Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze

This deeply researched book describes one of the great forgotten battles of the 20th century. At its height it involved nearly a million Chinese and Japanese soldiers, while sucking in three million civilians as unwilling spectators and, often, victims. It turned what had been a Japanese adventure in China into a general war between the two oldest and proudest civilizations of the Far East. Ultimately, it led to Pearl Harbor and to seven decades of tumultuous history in Asia. The Battle of Shanghai was a pivotal event that helped define and shape the modern world.

The Fall and Rise of China

For most of its 5,000-year existence, China has been the largest, most populous, wealthiest, and mightiest nation on Earth. And for us as Westerners, it is essential to understand where China has been in order to anticipate its future. These 36 eye-opening lectures deliver a comprehensive political and historical overview of one of the most fascinating and complex countries in world history.

Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China

As the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, Evan Osnos was on the ground in China for years, witness to profound political, economic, and cultural upheaval. In Age of Ambition, he describes the greatest collision taking place in that country: the clash between the rise of the individual and the Communist Party’s struggle to retain control.

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon?: Why China Has the Best (and Worst) Education System in the World

Learn how China is able to turn out the world's highest achieving students in math, science, and reading. Discover why, despite these amazing test scores, Chinese parents, teachers, and political leaders are desperate to leave behind their educational system. Discover how current reforms in the U.S. parallel the classic Chinese system, and how this could help (or hurt) our students' prospects.

When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail

Ancient China collides with newfangled America in this epic tale of opium smugglers, sea pirates, and dueling clipper ships. Brilliantly illuminating one of the least-understood areas of American history, best-selling author Eric Jay Dolin now traces our fraught relationship with China back to its roots: the unforgiving nineteenth-century seas that separated a brash, rising naval power from a battered ancient empire. It is a prescient fable for our time, one that surprisingly continues to shed light on our modern relationship with China.

Heaven Cracks, Earth Shakes: The Tangshan Earthquake and the Death of Mao's China

When an earthquake of historic magnitude leveled the industrial city of Tangshan in the summer of 1976, killing more than a half-million people, China was already gripped by widespread social unrest. As Mao lay on his deathbed, the public mourned the death of popular premier Zhou Enlai. Anger toward the powerful Communist Party officials in the Gang of Four, which had tried to suppress grieving for Zhou, was already potent; when the government failed to respond swiftly to the Tangshan disaster, popular resistance to the Cultural Revolution reached a boiling point.

Isabella: The Warrior Queen

Whether saintly or satanic, no female leader has done more to shape our modern world, in which millions of people in two hemispheres speak Spanish and practice Catholicism. Yet history has all but forgotten Isabella's influence, due to hundreds of years of misreporting that often attributed her accomplishments to Ferdinand, the bold and philandering husband she adored.

The Red Chamber

When orphaned Daiyu leaves her home in the provinces to take shelter with her cousins in the Capital, she is drawn into a world of opulent splendor, presided over by the ruthless, scheming Xifeng and the prim, repressed Baochai. As she learns the secrets behind their glittering facades, she finds herself entangled in a web of intrigue and hidden passions, reaching from the petty gossip of the servants' quarters all the way to the Imperial Palace.

China's Second Continent: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa

An exciting, hugely revealing account of China’s burgeoning presence in Africa - a developing empire already shaping, and reshaping, the future of millions of people. A prizewinning foreign correspondent and former New York Times bureau chief in Shanghai and in West and Central Africa, Howard French is uniquely positioned to tell the story of China in Africa. Through meticulous on-the-ground reporting, French crafts a layered investigation of astonishing depth and breadth.

Mao's Great Famine

Between 1958 and 1962, 45 million Chinese people were worked, starved or beaten to death. Mao Zedong threw his country into a frenzy with the Great Leap Forward. It lead to one of the greatest catastrophes the world has ever known. Dikotter's extraordinary research within Chinese archives brings together for the first time what happened in the corridors of power with the everyday experiences of ordinary people. This groundbreaking account definitively recasts the history of the People's Republic of China.

Napoleon: A Life

Andrew Roberts' Napoleon is the first one-volume biography to take advantage of the recent publication of Napoleon's thirty-three thousand letters, which radically transform our understanding of his character and motivation. At last we see him as he was: protean multitasker, decisive, surprisingly willing to forgive his enemies and his errant wife Josephine.

The Long March: The True History of Communist China's Founding Myth

The Long March is Communist China's founding myth, the heroic tale that every Chinese child learns in school. Seventy years after the historical march took place, Sun Shuyun set out to retrace the Marchers' steps and unexpectedly discovered the true history behind the legend. The Long March is the stunning narrative of her extraordinary expedition.

Imperial Woman: The Story of the Last Empress of China

The story of Tzu Hsi is the story of the last empress in China. In this audiobook, Pearl S. Buck recreates the life of one of the most intriguing rules during a time of intense turbulence. Tzu Hsi was born into one of the lowly ranks of the Imperial dynasty. According to custom, she moved to the Forbidden City at the age of 17 to become one of hundreds of concubines. But her singular beauty and powers of manipulation quickly moved her into the position of Second Consort.

Publisher's Summary

Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908) is the most important woman in Chinese history. She ruled China for decades and brought a medieval empire into the modern age.

At the age of 16, in a nationwide selection for royal consorts, Cixi was chosen as one of the emperor's numerous concubines. When he died in 1861, their five-year-old son succeeded to the throne. Cixi at once launched a palace coup against the regents appointed by her husband and made herself the real ruler of China - behind the throne, literally, with a silk screen separating her from her officials who were all male.

In this groundbreaking biography, Jung Chang vividly describes how Cixi fought against monumental obstacles to change China. Under her the ancient country attained virtually all the attributes of a modern state: industries, railways, electricity, the telegraph and an army and navy with up-to-date weaponry. It was she who abolished gruesome punishments like "death by a thousand cuts" and put an end to foot-binding. She inaugurated women's liberation and embarked on the path to introduce parliamentary elections to China. Chang comprehensively overturns the conventional view of Cixi as a diehard conservative and cruel despot.

Cixi reigned during extraordinary times and had to deal with a host of major national crises: the Taiping and Boxer rebellions, wars with France and Japan - and an invasion by eight allied powers including Britain, Germany, Russia and the United States. Jung Chang not only records the Empress Dowager's conduct of domestic and foreign affairs, but also takes the listener into the depths of her splendid Summer Palace and the harem of Beijing's Forbidden City, where she lived surrounded by eunuchs - one of whom she fell in love, with tragic consequences. The world Chang describes here, in fascinating detail, seems almost unbelievable in its extraordinary mixture of the very old and the very new.

Based on newly available, mostly Chinese, historical documents such as court records, official and private correspondence, diaries and eyewitness accounts, this biography will revolutionize historical thinking about a crucial period in China's - and the world's - history. Packed with drama, fast paced and gripping, it is both a panoramic depiction of the birth of modern China and an intimate portrait of a woman: as the concubine to a monarch, as the absolute ruler of a third of the world's population, and as a unique stateswoman.

"An impassioned defense of the daughter of a government employee who finagled her way to becoming the long-reigning empress dowager, feminist, and reformer….In an entertaining biography, the empress finally has her day." (Kirkus Reviews)

Critics of this work argue that Jung Chang has fallen in love with her subject, lost objectivity, taken a narrow view, abandoned scholarly rigor, and heavens, failed to entertain. I am not a scholar of Chinese History and have only a little Mandarin but I feel compelled to respond to some of these assertions.

Jung Chang clearly sympathizes with Cixi, and I can not imagine her failing to do so. The author has a more intimate connection to her subject than either a doctrinal scholar of the People's Republic or any Western male scholar will. In fact, I find myself becoming incensed by the decidedly male view that seems to suggest that such a constrained, uneducated, besieged woman, standing for the vast and deep heritage of the Dynasty that self-identified as China could have done much better. The author does not hide Cixi's failings, in fact she is careful to attempt to discover how Cixi perceived those now condemnable actions. She does however fail to anticipate the criticism of Cixi's choice to promote constitutional monarchy, and her weak provision for succession.

We have not been provided with this view before. It is a fascinating study of willful leadership and a sense of responsibility from a position of privileged powerlessness - and somehow feels familiar and understandable even now to an average Western woman in the 21st century. Jolene Kim's appropriately noninflected delivery and slightly accented voice in quotation lend an appropriate atmosphere to the work. The author is doing her level best to give this woman her voice. Western critiques that attack her employment of epithet and mannerism are ignorant of historic cultural forms.

I do agree however, that better source citation, anticipation and address of objections, and inclusion of the external viewpoint from outside of the court to help us understand what she could and could not have understood and significant junctures in her rule would have improved this work. I also agree that the treatment of some topics are either over-extended or underrepresented.

I think it is perhaps important to recognize the limits of any human holding together the last moments of a regime with some compassion. To do so, may help our own leaders see in those people the image of themselves.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Perhaps but the narration has biased me

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Jolene Kim?

Anyone

Any additional comments?

I was really looking forward to this but the narrator killed it for me. So much has been written on western political history and I have read and listened to a lot. This seemed to be a break from all that and a glimpse into a different world. Had it been narrated by someone else I think I would have enjoyed it but alas it was not. Her performance reminds me of one reading a children's book.

What made the experience of listening to Empress Dowager Cixi the most enjoyable?

I've read almost every bio of Cixi there is since high school, when I studied Chinese history. This bio puts a new and modern spin on how Cixi actually tried to modernize China at the turn of the 20th Century--while maintaining order at home and keeping foreign powers at bay. I knew the players well but the new viewpoint on her reign as empress went contrary to many popular opinions that she was reactionary and a deterrent to modernization. Fascinating! And seeing how Japan, Russia, and the Europeans played their part in disrupting the Ching Dynasty and the entire region is likewise a deep look back into a land of mystery to most Americans.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Cixi is one of history's most fascinating women. But Prince Chun, her brother-in-law (doubly so, half brother of the Emperor and married to Cixi's sister) is equally fascinating in this book, where he mostly plays the bad guy but one who reforms in the end.

What does Jolene Kim bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Jolene seems to have good Chinese pronunciation--while I can't be sure, she does seem to do a good job.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Dragon and Phoenix: China's entry into the modern world during the reign of Empress Cixi.

I bought the tape so I could listen to it while I knitted. I had purchased the book, but thought listening to it would work better because the names were so difficult to pronounce. Not! I ended up reading the book, only listening to the tape intermittently so I knew how to pronounce the Chinese names. The book was a great read; the tape was an awful listen.

Would you consider the audio edition of Empress Dowager Cixi to be better than the print version?

The book is well-written and very entertaining. Jung Chang has written a solid piece of work that makes learning about the dowager empress a lot of fun.

The narrator Jolene Kim, however, is another matter. She reads wll enough, and she might be of Chinese heritage (I have no idea), but she's clearly not from maninland China, and her pronounciation of Chinese Mandarin is horrendous. This detracts a lot from what could've been a perfect audio book. Kim pronounces Cixi as "Zi-shee" (the latter cyllable doesn't even exist in Mandarin), and because of her generally bad pronounciation of Chinese, it's very difficult for someone to look up names and words that she's is reading. Why not choose someone who actually IS from mainland China to read this book?

Another curious choice Kim makes is to read all of Empress Dowager Cixi's direct quotes in a type of Chinglish accent. Why would she do that? Cixi did not speak English at all, and thus did not deliver her opnions in broken English.

Please don't let this discourage you from reading or listening to the book, though! The book itself is great, and deserves to be read by everyone.

I am anxious to spare anyone else from wasting their hard earned money so I am dictating this with my phone in transit. If I repeat myself, please forgive.

It is hard to review the book because the narration is so god awful so the audio portion is my focus. Don't waste a credit. If you need audio, get the eBook and let your iPhone or other smartphone read it to you. If you want an audiobook of Cixi's story, try Pearl Buck's “Imperial Woman”, read by Kirsten Potter (compare the audio samples to hear for yourself).

Cixi's story is an interesting one. It can be fascinating or confusing to a young, Western reader unfamiliar with Chinese history, depending on how it is told. If Jung Chang's goal was to correct Pearl Buck's version of events and set the record straight, based on newly uncovered records, she missed the mark. Pearl Buck's skills as a storyteller are legendary. Few authors can stand up to that comparison and shouldn't have to. I was eager to experience Jung Chang's version of Cixi's story. Unfortunately, the audiobook experience was so awful I didn't get to. Still interested in Chang's version of Cixi's life, I then purchased a printed copy of the book. That was a year ago and I still haven't had a chance to sit down and read it. Meanwhile, during all my hours driving, walking, cooking, scanning, organizing … living, I'm listening to and recommending other books by other authors - authors who respect the skill of reading and understand the value of what it brings to a book.

Although I prefer audio books, I sometimes choose printed. Nobody enjoys every reader. That doesn't mean they're not qualified, competent readers. This is a different case. Kim's reading is plain and simple - god awful. If this was your own kid's reading you'd have a hard time suffering through it. She not only ruins any storytelling enjoyment that might've been had but actually gets in the way of the listener's ability to even grasp the story. Kim's stiff, halted, insecure reading, combined with a clear lack of understanding for the material she is reading combine for a horrible experience. She brings no life to the material, even struggling at times. There are audible pauses before and after certain words (obviously corrections during post-editing) accentuating the already inept narration. It's like a 14 year old reading her book report, without the charm.

Whoever approved the narration of this audiobook should be ashamed. Kim is apparently a working actress but audiobook narration is a separate skill. Some have it naturally. Kim doesn't. She has no other reading credits and this is not the book to start with. With all the qualified, talented readers who've paid their dues and would have loved the chance to read this book, it boggles my mind that someone approved this reading. Was Kim given the job simply because she's Asian, disregarding her lack of qualifications or ability for it? I've heard unknown, self published, self read books, classics read by Libra Vox volunteers that were better than this. How does a major publisher like Random House, that has spent gobs of money promoting a book not get a qualified reader?

It makes me wonder - if an author and publisher don't think her book is worth better reader than this, why should anyone else bother with it?

Audible should be ashamed to offer a reading this bad. It demeans the art of narration and is an insult to anyone who takes pride in the skill of reading an audio book.

Where does Empress Dowager Cixi rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is a very interesting book, well written and well performed by the narrator. It ranks pretty high in my collection of historical biographies so far.

What did you like best about this story?

The author, even though certainly supportive of the empress's achievements, is not overall biased and is frank about certain decisions Cixi had to make in order to preserve her power and the Chinese empire.

Which character – as performed by Jolene Kim – was your favorite?

It's funny the way the narrator switches to "chinese" English pronunciation when "performing" the empress in some of her letters or alleged sentences spoken to Ministers or Grandees or other.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

"The Dragon Woman"

Any additional comments?

This book is a cohesive overview of 19th century China and establishes Cixi as the real "maker". So, it makes an interesting hearing not only for people interested in the Empress tout court but also for people interested in Chinese history. Contrary to many biographies, Ms Chang doesn't give in to gossip. The performer, Jolene Kim, does a very good job (rhythm of the narration, clarity, even "performance" of some of the personages).

Your report has been received. It will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action.

Can't wait to hear more from this listener?

You can now follow your favorite reviewers on Audible.

When you follow another listener, we'll highlight the books they review, and even email* you a copy of any new reviews they write. You can un-follow a listener at any time to stop receiving their updates.

* If you already opted out of emails from Audible you will still get review emails by the listeners you follow.